The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for making products incorporating devices or radio frequency identification elements (Radio-Frequency identifying devices, RFid).
The invention also provides a head device specifically suitable for the construction of a metal wire aerial of a RFID.
The so-called radio frequency identification devices, or RFid (Radio-Frequency Identifying devices), nowadays find a variety of applications, such as for example documents, cards or access, recognition and/or identity card.
As known, the aforementioned devices comprise an electronic storage and/or data processing element, typically a chip, connected to a data transmission aerial via radio waves.
A critical aspect of the construction of the RFid is related to the realization of the aerial and to its connection to the chip. Currently, the aerial is applied on a substrate embodying the chip by printing conductive inks, photogravure or by deposition of a copper wire.
The latter technique, on equal productivity, has the advantage of a lower environmental impact compared to the production of polyester aerials through photochemical etching, allowing a consistently higher percentage of recyclability of the RFid. In fact, it allows to use 90% of eco-friendly materials, while the polyester product is not biodegradable in any term. Moreover, the process for manufacturing of RFid on polyester is not convenient in the most of countries, due to the very stringent regulations in terms of the relative industrial waste management.
By contrast, the machines currently used for the deposition of the copper wire that realizes the aerial on its substrate are mechanically complex and generally not very versatile with respect to the possibility to vary the characteristics of the final product. Furthermore, also due to the mechanical complexity and overall dimensions and weights involved, the known machines are often not able to work within the limits of accuracy, i.e. tolerances, imposed by some types of applications, particularly those involving small substrate thicknesses and/or cross sections of the wire. These disadvantages therefore limit the application of the copper wire technology based on the deposition and, consequently, do not allow to fully benefit of the related advantages in terms of environmental impact.